Loro Piana Baby Cashmere

By Ernskie | Published: August 17, 2010

Don’t ask me why but lately I’ve been checking out clothes for fall and winter, in particular, knitwear and jackets. I know, it’s still summer, and I’ve only gone as far as checking out Loro Piana’s collection. One thing I got fixated on was their baby cashmere collection. I don’t know about you but I had no idea there was such a thing. Apparently, this is the new cashmere frontier.

Here are some of the items that caught my eye.

BomberJacket

Bomber Jacket with mink fur lining

MousseSweater

HarborJacket

I would love to own one of these pieces but I’m sure it is out of my reach. They don’t call them baby “cash”-mere for nothing. Although, one thing I find weird is they refer to these young goats as “kids”.

According to Loro Piana’s website:

Baby cashmere is an extremely rare and precious fibre exclusively obtained from the underfleece of Hircus goat kids. The fibre is gathered by means of a delicate and completely harmless combing procedure that is only done once in a goat’s life, before the kids are 12 months old.

Baby cashmere, deriving from the mountainous regions of Northern China and Mongolia, is available in extremely limited quantities: one kid produces no more than 80 grams of this soft down (against the approximately 250 grams produced by an adult) which, after deahiring coarser outer fibres, is reduced to only 30-40 grams that are usable: it takes the fleece of 19 kids to make just one pullover; to make an overcoat requires the fleece of 58 kids.

Imagine that.

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Buttermilk-Garlic Chicken Kebabs

By Ernskie | Published: August 10, 2010

Ah yes, it was Sunday afternoon and we were wondering what to have for dinner. Sunday is always a good day to try new recipes. Maybe because we like to stay at home and laze around. So while I was reading the July issue of Canadian House and Home magazine, I saw this recipe and thought we should give it a try.

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Did I say laze around? Well we did so we didn’t get to cooking the kebabs and decided to go out for dinner instead. It’s better for these chicken thighs anyway since they can be marinated for up to 24 hours.

So, we had them for dinner tonight. The verdict? It was delicious and pretty easy to make. Also, chicken thighs are more moist and flavourful (not to mention cheaper) than breasts. You can see below there are only two steps in this recipe.

Ingredients
16 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, about 5 lbs.
2 cups buttermilk
1 onion, coarsely chopped
5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp. dried oregano (or 1/4 cup chopped fresh)
juice and zest of 1 lemon
black pepper to taste
kosher salt
chopped fresh mint, optional

1. Cut each thigh into 1″ to 2″ chunks, trimming and discarding any visible fat. Combine buttermilk, onion, garlic, oregano, lemon juice and zest and pepper in a large ziplock bag. Add chicken, close and marinate in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

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2. Soak 16 bamboo skewers in cold water for about 30 minutes. Preheat barbecue to high. Thread 6 to 8 chicken pieces onto each skewer, squeezing close together. Sprinkle generously with salt. Grease the hot grill with oil, place skewers on it and reduce heat to medium-low. Close lid and cook 15 to 20 minutes, turning once or twice, or until cooked through. Sprinkle with mint.

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I’m sure they would have tasted even better with tzatziki but we settled for sour cream since that’s what we had in the fridge.

Mmmm, good thing there are some leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch!

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Goodbye iPhone 3G!

By Ernskie | Published: August 2, 2010

Hello iPhone 4!

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My new assistant

This one is considerably faster and thanks to the Retina display, the images are crisper and sharper compared to its predecessors. It takes also decent pictures and records video in HD. The only thing is, I wish had the white one but since Apple is having problems with production, black iPhones were the only ones available. So far I haven’t encountered the problems with the antenna performance but I ordered the free bumper just in case. Again, the only available colour was black. Geez! Oh well, as Henry Ford said “Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants so long as it is black.”

In fairness to my iPhone 3G, it served me well and I would have kept it probably for another year had I not upgraded the operating system to iOS4. Right after installing the new system, the phone was rendered useless. Well, pretty much. It became so slow and sluggish that answering a call or sending a text message was an ordeal.

Here’s a comical video clip that shows what I’m talking about. It’s poking fun at the iPhone commercial but it’s really how it is after installing the new OS.

There’s definitely a lot more features I have to play with and explore in this new iPhone. For now I’m just gonna pay respect to my old iPhone 3G one last time.

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Wallpaper* – The Handmade Issue

By Ernskie | Published: July 25, 2010

Well, look at here. What a pleasant surprise! I didn’t expect my copy to arrive so soon.

So what’s special about the Wallpaper* August issue? It’s the Handmade issue, meaning the entire issue was devoted to celebrating everything handmade — from bikes to picnic baskets, and even designing my own cover for my copy. Granted, all I had to do was select a number of graphics, patterns and pictures, put them all together and voila! Here’s my own unique cover.

WallpaperCover

There were lots of beautiful handmade items featured in this issue but one of the items I would love to have is this hand-crafted iPad case from Hermès. Not that I would get it since, a) it’s by special order only, and b) by the time I get it, there’s probably a new version of iPad that won’t fit this case.

iPadding

By the way, I’m sure it costs more than an iPad so I would also need a benefactor in order to afford this beauty.

Perhaps Wallpaper* will give me this one? Pretty please?

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